Former Pixar CFO Lawrence Levy on Decision Making & Relationships

Lawrence Levy (0:00)

Whatever it is that we're doing, it could be writing a 75-page legal contract, it could be driving our children to school, it could be serving coffee at a coffee shop. It doesn't matter what it is.

It's about the quality that we bring to it. And so when we are in that, we're in our element when we don't feel that angst and that clutter. For me, that's mastery. Thank you.

Michael Gervais (0:35)

All right, welcome back or welcome to the Finding Mastery podcast. I'm Michael Gervais. And the idea behind these conversations is to learn from people who have dedicated their life efforts to understand and express the nuances of their craft. And what we wanna do is understand their psychological framework. How do they understand the world? How do they understand how people work? How do they understand how their unique craft works?

And then we wanna dig even deeper to understand the mental skills that they've used to be able to build and refine their craft. And how they've applied those insights into other crafts. And that's exactly what this conversation is about. Moving from one craft to another. And the risk taking process embedded in that. Finding Mastery is brought to you by Bubbs Naturals. Like many of you, I'm mindful about what I put in my body. For me, it usually comes down to ingredients and simplicity. The shorter the list, the better. And if I have to look it up, I'm usually out. That's why I've been loving Bubbs Naturals. Bubbs creates products with high-quality, all-natural ingredients designed to help people get after their adventures in life. I've been a huge fan of their Hydrate or Die electrolyte mix for years now. It only has six total ingredients, but it's packed with five times the electrolytes as conventional sports drinks with none of the added sugars, artificial flavors, sweeteners or preservatives. It's great for post-workout recovery, outdoor adventures and staying hydrated during long periods of travel, which I've done a lot of lately and Bubz is a go-to for me. Plus, all Bubz products are 100% NSF for sport certified, which means they pass the most rigorous quality standards. They're currently in just about every MLB locker room, working closely with the Red Sox, Yankees, Rangers, Cardinals, Diamondbacks and more, of course.

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And so he was from London, that's where he was born, which I happen to be in London as we speak, learning from some of the best sporting clubs here and to understand their practices and their perspectives and how they build culture and how they build the mindset of competitive cauldron to be able to help people become their very best. And so there'll be more of those insights at some future time. But I'm here just learning and soaking it up and it's fantastic. And what I wanted to learn from Lawrence in this conversation is how he thinks about taking on challenges and how he organizes his thoughts about risk taking. And then lastly, how he's been able to have extreme success on multiple counts.